Constance Compton

Constance has a strong interest in foreign affairs and the transatlantic relationship.

As has been noted already
on ConservativeHome, the full text of David Cameron’s speech this week
commemorating the fifth anniversary of 9/11 was subtler and more balanced than
the media coverage it received. But a team which gives message and PR the
priority that Cameron’s does could not plausibly feign surprise that calling for
a policy of 'patience and humility’ in preference to an existing policy that is
‘slavish’ and ‘simplistic’ has been seen as more significant and revealing of
the Tories’ current stance than his welcome denunciation of the crudest forms of
anti-Americanism.

The speech follows the
Conservatives’ decision in July to go much further than Tony Blair in
criticising Israeli action in the Lebanon and Gaza – language repeated by
Cameron on Monday. Again, one could plead that this decision was motivated by
the purest principle, rather than the hope of tapping into an ever-growing,
fashionable anti-Americanism. But the decision to emphasise the
stance in a Sunday Telegraph article as a divergence from US foreign policy,
rather than diplomatically bury the fact, would suggest
otherwise.

Press coverage has
suggested that these statements could mark a radical departure from the party's
recent history, but in fact it is most characteristic of the very period, under
Michael Howard, from which David Cameron has been keenest to distance the
Conservative Party.